Everything I Have Always Forgotten

Everything I Have Always Forgotten is the story of Owain Hughes' childhood in the 40s and 50s. He spent it in boarding schools and in his family's large (but electricity-free) house, on the banks and waters of the Dwyryd estuary, and above, all walking in the mountains. The landscape of North Wales with Snowdonia in the near distance - dominated Owain's existence, and his stories of sailing, riding and walking culminate in the five-day hike through Snowdonia by the eleven-year-old Owain and a school friend. The trip ended with them storm-bound for several weeks on the Holy Island of Bardsey off the coast of North Wales, without any means of communication with his family. The 'Huck Finn' aspect of Owain's childhood was the result of his parents' policy of raising their children "with plenty of benign neglect", intended to encourage independence and self reliance. His father was the acclaimed novelist Richard Hughes and his mother, the artist Frances Bazley, a distant cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, a combination that added further exoticism to Owain's childhood. There were visits to cousins in medieval castles, brushes with international spies, a circle of friends which included Bertrand Russell, Klop Ustinov (father of Peter) and Clough Willaims-Ellis, broadcasts on the BBC, and a visit from 'The Men from Disney'.